Lauren Boebert is trying to pull a fast one on you
This weekend, Lauren Boebert appeared on television and insisted that Hunter Biden is “comprised.” She was supposed to say “compromised,” and everyone on social media promptly piled on, under the presumption that Boebert is so dumb, she doesn’t actually know the difference between the two words.
But here’s the thing. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene are buffoons in general, but they used to know how to use basic words correctly. This thing they both do lately where they constantly flub basic words, it’s something that just started this year – which means they have to be doing it on purpose. That means it’s just a game for attention. If you want to mock them for it, that’s cool, but understand that it’s their game, not yours.
There is strategic reason for all of you to push the likes of Boebert and Greene (and Gaetz and Jordan) front and center. If you can make them the face of the Republican Party, they can be used against other Republicans who are running in more moderate districts. This can be a highly effective midterm strategy. But that only works if you emphasize their deranged extremism, not the words they flub. Moderates in swing districts may turn against their own incumbent House Republicans for refusing to do anything about the Republican Party’s extremism. But no one is going to vote against the Republican Party just because a couple of Republican politicians are seen as being illiterate.
If anything, Boebert and Greene seem to be using these word flubs to not only get attention, but ensure that the attention they get is about this kind of inconsequential nonsense, instead of being about what corrupt and horrible extremist monsters they are. Trump used a similar strategy when he was in office. He never could spell particularly well to begin with. But once he realized how much of a distraction he could create from his criminal scandals by flubbing a word in a tweet, he seemed to start doing it on purpose, just at the right time, as needed.
So if you want to pile on whenever Boebert and Greene misuse yet another basic word, because you enjoy such things, then so be it. But be sure you’re aware that they’re likely doing this on purpose, because they want you to pile on. They want the focus to be on their supposed illiteracy, not their extremism or their corruption scandals or their political incompetence. And if they’re able to play you in this manner, then they’re clearly not quite as dumb as they’d have you believe.
If anything, you should perhaps mock Boebert and Greene for intentionally misspeaking in a pathetic effort to distract from their extremism and scandals. That would have the dual effect of allowing you to mock them, and educating the public about their extremism and scandals.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report